Elliot Gershon, M.D.

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Professor

Research Description

Our overarching goal is to identify genes and genomic mechanisms in neuropsychiatric disorders. With my close collaborator Prof. Chunyu Liu at UIC, we have published studies on functional genomics of brain. These include pioneering genome-wide studies that revealed common genetic variants (quantitative trait loci; QTLs) that control of gene expression and methylation. With Prof. Nancy Cox and her postdoc Dr. Eric Gamazon, we have incorporated these findings into genetic association analyses of Bipolar and other disorders. We have also developed gene networks with differential expression in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Copy Number Variants (CNVs) are chromosomal microdeletions and microduplications that can be discovered through genome-wide analyses. These CNVs are too small to be discovered by microscopic methods, although they can be tagged once they are discovered. Rare CNVs play a major role in several psychiatric disorders, and this is another major research interest of our group. We have contributed to discovery of rare CNV burden in psychiatric disorders, and to the role of de novo CNVs in these disorders. We are also studying rare single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Bipolar disorder.

Our other major interests are in somatic mutation in brain in neuropsychiatric disorders, genetic counseling in neuropsychiatric disorders, and pharmacogenomics of medication response in Bipolar Disorder.